Things are getting ugly out there in the PERS wars. That’s a painful lesson in the ongoing education of Jillian, Kelly and Lindsay, the daughters of David N. Harrison.

On the eve of his disability retirement in 2007, Harrison — who worked for the state for 16 years — checked Option 1, “No Beneficiaries,” on a preliminary benefits application.

That meant Harrison received an extra $80 each month from the monthly checks drawn on the $96,000 in his individual PERS retirement account. But it also meant that when he died — and Harrison was dealing with end-stage renal disease at the time — his three daughters wouldn’t get a dime.

"The theory that he sacrificed $90,000 that would have gone to his dependent daughters, all of whom are of (or nearing) college age, in order to get an extra $80 per month is completely inconsistent with everything the man stood for,” said Kevin Lafky, a Salem attorney, “and completely inconsistent with his estate planning, beneficiary designations and provisions for his daughters.”

Harrison’s ex-wife, Liz Harrison LaHay, argues Harrison was suffering from seizures, mini-strokes and severe sleep disorder when he checked Option 1, all of which impaired his judgment.

When he died 13 months later, PERS ruled that his daughters — Jillian, 21, and Kelly,19, are now in college, and Lindsay, 16, a junior in high school — were not eligible for the remaining $74,000 in his account. That sum would be theirs had Harrison checked the “refund annuity option.”

When LaHay and Lafky challenged that ruling, Joseph Dunne, representing PERS for the Department of Justice, told them they needed to ask a judge to declare Harrison was incapacitated when he checked Option 1.

“Joe Dunne specifically said, ‘Just get a court order. It should take 45 days,’¤” Lafky said, adding that Dunne indicated PERS would not contest the move.

Before the process was completed, however, Susan Bower, another assistant AG, took over the case for PERS. Nineteen months later, the battle rages on.

LaHay said Bower has engaged in tactics “designed to exhaust my family both emotionally and financially.” Bower has filed motions to dismiss, changes of venue, and jurisdiction objections.

The legal battle has cost LaHay more than $12,000.

“If a judge says (Harrison) was competent, so be it,” LaHay said. “But let a court decide. They have obstructed our efforts to do that.”

As the case is still in dispute, DOJ will not comment.

PERS concedes that Harrison designated the trust he set up for his daughters as beneficiary when he first applied for disability retirement in September 2007.

“When PERS saw those forms and the contradictory situation, they did nothing to follow up and iron out the contradiction,” Lafky said. “Not even a phone call.”

I find it hard to believe that Harrison, who had already endured one failed kidney transplant and was chasing another, meant to check an option that prevented his daughters from benefitting from his PERS account after he died.